INTRODUCTION TO

WORLD RELIGIONS
RELIGIOUS STUDIES, AND SPIRITUALITY

Based on: Chapter 1 of Invitation to World Religions, 2nd edition.

WHY STUDY RELIGION AT ALL?

o Religion is a fundamental aspect of almost all cultures around

the globe
o It intersects with many other areas: politics, economics,
aesthetics, ethics
o Understanding a culture’s religious beliefs and practices gives
you a fuller understanding of who they are and how they see
themselves.
WHAT IS RELIGION?

o Relatively new field of study

o “Religion” itself is a relatively new term
o Difficulties with studying religion
GROUND RULES FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION

o Do not privilege one religious tradition over another.

o Avoid applying terms and concepts from one religion to another.
o Don’t let your own biases or assumptions influence your
understanding of other traditions.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES AS A DISCIPLINE

o The academic study of religion only began in the 18th century.

o Thinkers during the German Enlightenment started to see
religion as something distinct from other aspects of culture
o Exploration / Colonization meant that Europeans were coming
into to contact with different cultures
o This led to the development of “religion” as a specific area of
study.
o N.B. This is different from theology.
DEFINING OUR TERMS: RELIGION
Sociological :
A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and
practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church,
all those who adhere to them.
—Émile Durkheim
Individualist point of view:
[Religion is] . . . the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in
their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation
to whatever they may consider the divine.
—William James
Existential
[T]he religious aspect points to that which is ultimate, infinite, unconditional in
man’s spiritual life. Religion, in the largest and most basic sense of the word, is
ultimate concern.
—Paul Tillich
CONTEMPORARY DEFINITIONS

HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (1995), edited by Jonathan Z. Smith, defines religion as follows,
“One may clarify the term religion by defining it as a system of beliefs and practices that are relative to
superhuman beings. This definition moves away from defining religion as some special kind of
experience or worldview. It emphasizes that religions are systems or structures consisting of specific
kinds of beliefs and practices: beliefs and practices that are related to superhuman beings.
Superhuman beings are beings who can do things ordinary mortals cannot do. They are known for
their miraculous deeds and powers that set them apart from humans. They can be either male or
female, or androgynous. They need not be gods or goddesses, but may take on the form of an ancestor
who can affect lives. They make take the form of benevolent or malevolent spirits who cause good or
harm to a person or community. Furthermore, the definition requires that such superhuman beings be
specifically related to beliefs and practices, myths and rituals” (emphasis added).
Bruce Lincoln (b. 1948), one of the most prominent contemporary theorists of religion, asserts in his
definition that a religion always consists of four “domains”—discourse, practice, community, and
institution:
1. A discourse whose concerns transcend the human, temporal, and contingent, and that claims for
itself a similarly transcendent status . . .
2. A set of practices whose purpose is to produce a proper world and/or proper human subjects, as
defined by a religious discourse to which these practices are connected . . .
3. A community whose members construct their identity with reference to a religious discourse and
its attendant practices . . .
4. An institution that regulates religious discourse, practices, and community, reproducing them over
time and modifying them as necessary, while asserting their eternal validity and transcendent
value.
WHAT DO RELIGIONS DO?

o Religion has been developed by humans

o Religion responds to very real needs experienced by humans
across history and around the world.
SO WHY DO RELIGIONS EXIST?

1. What is ultimate reality?

2. How should we live in this world?
3. What is our ultimate purpose?
WHAT IS ULTIMATE REALITY?

Many religions will assert that the ultimate reality is somehow divine. Divine doesn’t necessarily imply that
there is a God or gods– but it often does.

• Theism (Gr. Θέος):

• Polytheism, monotheism, henotheism, pantheism, panentheism.
• Non-theistic:
• Atheism
• Transtheistic
HOW DO WE COME TO KNOW THE ULTIMATE
REALITY?

• Revelation
• Sacred text
• Direct Experience
WHAT DOES THIS REVELATION TEACH US?

• Who are we?

• What are we doing here?
• Where do we come from?
• What is our purpose here?
• Where are we?
• Cosmology
HOW SHOULD WE LIVE IN THIS WORLD?

Religions attempt to explain what it is to be human

• Are humans fundamentally good or not?
• Either way, how do humans move towards better moral and ethical behaviour?
• What does it mean to act morally or ethically?
WHAT IS OUR ULTIMATE PURPOSE?

• Mortality
• Conduct in this world determines our fate after death
• Transcendent Experience
• Spiritual fulfillment
BEYOND THE TRANSCENDENT

• Belief in a divine principle, or set of ultimate truths can help even in out day to day lives:
• It can help face life’s uncertainties, help us to take care of one another, and give us a social group that offers
care and support.
• Sacred art, music, architecture also bring joy through their beauty– even to non-believers and non
practitioners.
DIMENSIONS OF RELIGION

Categories of common components:

Ninian Smart’s 7 dimensions:
• The mythic (or sacred narrative)
• The doctrinal (or philosophical)
• The ethical (or legal)
• The ritual (or practical)
• The experiential (or emotional)
• The social
• The material
TIPS FOR APPROACHING THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF
RELIGION

• Balance and Empathy

• Comparative and Multidisciplinary Approaches
REVIEW:

• For Review
• 1. Who is Émile Durkheim, and what is notable about his definition of religion?
• 2. Bruce Lincoln, in his definition of religion, identifies four “domains.” What are they?
• 3. What is “revelation,” and how is it pertinent to the question: What is ultimate reality?
• 4. Identify and briefly describe Ninian Smart’s seven “dimensions” of religion.
• 5. What is “empathy,” and how is it relevant for the academic study of religion?
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION

1. Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, while tending to be dismissive of the enduring importance of religion,
asserted explanations that continue to provoke and to enrich academic consideration of the role of
religion. Based on their statements included in this chapter, how might their perspectives be
provocative and enriching in this respect?
2. This chapter and book pose three prominent questions with regard to the challenges addressed by the
world’s religions: What is ultimate reality? How should we live in this world? What is our ultimate
purpose? Drawing on examples and ideas presented in this chapter, discuss to what extent and in what
ways these three questions are interrelated.
3. Explore the interrelationship of these features of religions in the modern world: globalization,
secularization, and multiculturalism.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Religion would thus be the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity; like
the obsessional neurosis of children, it arose out of the Oedipus complex, out of the relation to the father.

Karl Marx (1818–1883) : Man makes religion, religion does not make man. In other words, religion is the
self-consciousness and self-feeling of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself
again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man, the state,
society. . . . Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the
spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.